The specification relates to media control systems. In particular, the specification relates to a system and method for regulating in-vehicle media volume.
It is a common phenomenon that a driver of an automobile listens to media content such as music, podcasts, radio, etc., while driving a vehicle. Frequently, the driver's attention is focused on the media content instead of driving the automobile. For example, the driver may manually adjust the media volume and be distracted, thereby causing accidents in an emergent situation such as an animal suddenly crossing the road. It is therefore desirable to implement a volume control system that controls the media volume automatically to reduce distractions for a driver. However, existing systems for volume control have been proven deficient and have numerous problems.
First, existing automobile-based volume control systems only consider a single factor when controlling the in-vehicle media volume. For example, existing automobile-based volume control systems consider the velocity of a vehicle and control the media volume based on the velocity. These existing systems ignore other factors. For example, they ignore environmental factors (e.g., foggy weather, road traffic conditions, etc.) that might cause a driver to lower the media volume manually in order to focus their attention on driving the automobile.
Second, existing automobile-based volume control systems do not provide functionality for reducing distractions for a driver. For example, existing automobile-based volume control systems may adjust the media volume based on a velocity of a vehicle so that a ratio between a level of the media volume and noise level is constant. Because the noise level is proportional to the velocity, the existing automobile-based volume control systems increase the level of the media volume when the velocity increases and reduce the level of the media volume when the velocity decreases. However, these existing systems fail to consider reducing distractions for a driver when making a decision to increase or decrease the level of the media volume.